Page 5 of The Demon Court

Lust snorted. “We’ll see. You shouldn’t lie so easily, Mayor, you’ll find it gets all too easy to spin tales. And you won’t like what I do when I find out the truth.”

The human gulped, his throat moving in a rather impressive bob before he gestured for Lust to follow him.

And so the games began.

It took the better part of the day to look over the mayor’s finances. Everything was a mess. All the documents were kept in individual folders, changes made to the margins, scratched out, and then rewritten in a hand that was almost illegible.

He had his brother’s voice in his head the whole time. “Why are you still doing all that work? Isn’t there someone in the kingdom who can do math as well as you? It’s just adding numbers, Lust. For fuck’s sake, there have to be better things for you to do.”

And the rub of it all was that there was. Plenty of better things, and people, for him to be doing rather than sitting in a dusty office that rarely saw use. Blowing out a breath, he watched the dust motes ascend into the air and glitter in the waning sunlight that sparkled through the fractured window behind him.

He’d run out of time. For the first time in years, he hadn’t finished surveying the books before he had to go out and perform at the festival.

Cursing, he stood up and stretched out the crick in his back. He reached for the jacket on the chair, intending for his suit to be completely done up when he went out, but... Well. There was no use for it, now was there?

He knew the festival would end with him wearing no shirt at all. Likely wearing nothing. They’d throw some young woman at him, a virgin, the damned things, or a whole group of women. Some towns would add a man in there for a bit of flavor to it all, but they did the same thing every year. The whole festival would turn into an orgy.

A boring, routine orgy.

Rubbing his hand down his face, he hissed out a long breath. He was tired, damn it. What he wouldn’t give for a cup of tea and a quiet evening.

He left his jacket behind. Let them pawn it off for a little extra money to pad these god awful books. Then maybe they’d be able to break even this year, let alone prove the glorious investment the mayor kept prattling on about.

Lust passed by a mirror and paused. He smoothed his hair down around the twin horns on top of his head. The blonde locks always tangled on the ribbed ridges, and it made him look... mussed. It made him look like himself, he assumed. Whatever they expected him to look like. But he’d rather look a little put together before they ruined the image.

“My lord.” His footman coughed into his hand. “They’ve been eagerly awaiting your arrival.”

“I know.”

“There are four women this time.”

“So few?”

It took a bit for his footman to get his grin wrestled back to that nonplussed expression. “I had them whittle a few of them down. Said some of them were too young.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. Seven kingdoms. He hoped they weren’t throwing children at him now. “Thank you for that. And everything else?”

“Exactly as you’d expect it.”

So there was food, too much wine. The people were already deep into their cups and already letting their inhibitions get the better of them. At this point, they didn’t even need him to be there. He missed the early days of taking this kingdom and watching humans bend to their lustful nature. He enjoyed watching them hate what they were doing and love it at the same time.

Now, they looked forward to him coming. Like they knew they could use him as an excuse to do whatever they wanted.

“Fuck,” he whispered. “And they’re all here?”

“Apparently, they were waiting for one young gentleman who hadn’t made it back from the market yet. Poor sod picked up some waif on the side of the road and broke a wagon wheel not a mile away from town. They walked the rest of the way with a horse that looks like a ghost beside them.”

“What a tale.” He couldn’t care less. “Let’s get on with it, then.”

He strode out of the mayor’s house and tossed on the persona of who he was. Should be. Usually was. It hadn’t been this difficult last year, had it?

His exhausted expression smoothed out into one of complete and utter confidence. He winked at the women as he passed by, ignoring their swoons and dramatic faints into the arms of their friends. The men gave him curt nods, their eyes already hungry as they looked for the woman who would be their enjoyment tonight. And, of course, there were a few heated stares in his direction as well. After all, he was made to appeal to everyone.

Though his eyes trailed over countless figures, he didn’t really see any of the people. They blended into his memory of all the humans he’d seen before and would see again. Nothing was new. It was all the same. The same pattern, the same fabric to make the same damned people.

A warm body collided with his own and gasps of horror echoed through the crowd. Not a light bump, either. Not the kind of collision that came from a young woman manipulating her way into his bed without the mayor’s permission.

She hurt. She connected her shoulder with the delicate side of his ribs as though she hadn’t seen him with the full force of her weight. It was not an easy bump. She struck him hard enough to make his ribs groan.

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